Muscatine Generating Station

Muscatine Generating Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by the City of Muscatine, Iowa.

Muscatine has worst air in Iowa
In February 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared Iowa's pollution-fighting plans "substantially inadequate" for maintaining fine particulate matter standards in Muscatine, which has the worst air in the state. EPA gave the state 18 months to develop new plans, after which industry will be required to reduce pollution within two more years. If pollution standards are not met, Iowas could lose federal funding and implementation of air standards would be done by the EPA rather than the state.

In 2010, EPA voided nearly two years of Muscatine's sulfur dioxide data due to faulty equipment.

"Muscatine Crud"
Midwest Energy News quoted Iowa physician Dr. Maureen McCue, "Muscatine is a hot spot for air-pollution-related illness relative to the rest of Iowa."

According to life-long Muscatine resident Linda Smith, her doctor diagnosed the upper-respiratory symptoms that she shares with others from the air as "Muscatine Crud."

Coal lobbying
Muscatine Power & Water is a member of the American Coal Ash Association (ACAA), an umbrella lobbying group for all coal ash interests that includes major coal burners Duke Energy, Southern Company and American Electric Power as well as dozens of other companies. The group argues that the so-called "beneficial-use industry" would be eliminated if a "hazardous" designation was given for coal ash waste.

ACAA set up a front group called Citizens for Recycling First, which argues that using toxic coal ash as fill in other products is safe, despite evidence to the contrary.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Muscatine Power & Water
 * Parent Company: City of Muscatine, Iowa
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 294 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 25 MW (1958), 75 MW (1969), 176 MW (1983), 18 MW (2000)
 * Location: 1700 Industrial Connector Rd., Muscatine, IA 52761
 * GPS Coordinates: 41.390361, -91.0618
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * CO2 Emissions: 2,066,156 tons (2006), 2,194,716.55 tons (2008)
 * SO2 Emissions: 3458.03 tons (2008)
 * SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * NOx Emissions: 4010.51 tons (2008)
 * Mercury Emissions:

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Muscatine
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Muscatine
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed April 2011

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